Singapore Airlines pays $3.3 million fine to South Africa

By IBT Staff Reporter On 03/26/12 AT 9:40 PM

Singapore Airlines Ltd , the world's second largest by market value, said on Tuesday it paid a fine of 25 million rand ($3.29 million) to settle a South African investigation into price-fixing of flights between Johannesburg and Hong Kong.

South African Airways was fined 18.8 million rand, the Competition Commission of South Africa said in a statement that described the violations by the two carriers. Singapore Airlines (SIA) did not mention the reason in its statement.

Once the settlement agreement is confirmed by the South African Competition Tribunal, this will bring the Competition Commission's investigation to a close for Singapore Airlines, the carrier said.

In 2010, SIA and 10 other airlines were fined a total of 799 million euros ($1.06 billion) by the European Commission for fixing cargo prices. SIA said it may appeal that decision but paid a fine of 74.8 million euros. ($1 = 7.5931 South African rand) ($1 = 0.7504 euro)